


Set Me Free

by orphan_account



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, spoilers for most of the games, unrequited bbeva and unrequited bbocelot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 02:59:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4547556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This was about John, not him. Always was, and always will be."</p><p>between portable ops and peace walker, during les enfants terribles</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set Me Free

Who knew the vending machines in government buildings could be so prolific. This one was mostly candy with a small amount of potato chips, cigarette boxes, and some Life Savers at the bottom. Adam put in ten dollars for two Twix bars, some barbeque chips, the last Rolo in the machine, and a pack of Camels. He shoved the goods in a plastic bag, save for the Rolo, which he stuffed in his pocket. He then collected the change. He liked getting the extra change, especially when there was a lot of it.

Eva's room was two floors down from the ground floor and past some hallways he could easily navigate. Shame she let them keep her in there. A fool, trapped like a jack in the box. Although artificially impregnating her with several babies didn't leave her with much of a choice to even stand up.

And when Adam got in the room Eva did indeed look like a clown trapped in a windowless and overwhelmingly plain concrete bedroom. She was like a grandmother with her worn hospital gown and slippers. She rubbed her swollen stomach and watched an episode of what Adam recognized to be Bewitched on an archaic TV set. Far from the clever spy he'd known for almost a decade.

Maybe he should tell her?

He put the plastic bag on the floor and switched the channel to an episode of Gunsmoke.

"Nice to see you too, Ocelot."

She still called him that. He pretended not to know her real name.

"I got you the things you wanted. They're in that bag. Just never ask me to get you another Glamour magazine. Maybe Dr. Clark can do that for you."

He sat down on the floor and fixated himself on the TV screen. The sound of plastic rustling made the voices on the set inaudible. 

"No Rolos?"

"Sorry, they were out."

More rustling.

"...Smokes? Ocelot, I'm pregnant."

"Sorry. Those were for me."

He scooched over to Eva's side and snatched the pack from her hands. He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it without thinking.

"I didn't know y-"

It was only a matter of time before his throat began to burn. He started coughing.

"...Guess you don't."

It took him a while to regain his senses, to be able to breathe normally again. He felt for a bottle in the bag and drank from it, only feeling his throat sting more. Who knew there was so much sugar in juice.

"I got you two bottles of that. Don't worry."

"That..it's fine. But he smokes cigars, you know. Not cigarettes."

Adam's stomach felt warm. The muscles in his throat clumped up and hurt.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I...shit. That sounded bad."

She knew what she was talking about. He felt himself forming fists. 

"What I meant was...it was just...you know how you'd always copy what Snake did? Back in Groznyj Grad?"

"I'm a fast learner."

"I thought...since you're still...friends...and all, maybe you're still doing that? I just...it was stupid. I wanted to help. Sorry."

She had no idea. He wasn't that simple. John wasn't that simple. Life wasn't that simple. He couldn't take any more cutsey assumptions and small talk.

"Are you angry?"

The muscles on his face felt tense. 

"I really didn't mean to-"

"I don't know what you want from this project."

He got up.

"Hoping that somehow, unknowingly harboring John's offspring will get his attention again. Allowing yourself to live in a shoebox for nine months. Almost getting yourself killed every day with whatever it is Zero wants his posse to do you you. Hoping that as soon as you see the light of day, it'll all be over."

And looked her straight in the eye.

"I've been visiting you, hoping that you would eventually understand. That you would understand by just thinking on your own. Not telling you a word. I wanted to be polite, as much as I hate it. So I'll tell you now."

He kneeled again and grabbed her by the shoulders. Her face was too close to his.

"You are being used. Just as I am, as John is, and all the others."

It felt so good to say it all out loud, to not keep his several trains of thoughts in his head.

She shoved him off of her, in a polite way, almost as he was an over-attached child. That was probably what he was to her.

"Is...is this what it's about? That I did this to satisfy my need for Snake's love? I did it for the Patriots. I will probably never see these children in my life. Or Snake."

The last time she'd seen John was during the Patriot's first meeting not long ago. The last time she'd actually talked to him was in Hanoi not long before that. Adam had even managed to situate himself into that mission and watched over the two and make sure they stayed a good amount away from each other. And they did - both of them were uncomfortable, awkward, and extremely formal while working together.

The last time he saw John was about two months ago, over dinner in a shabby Chinese restaurant.

But this wasn't about that.

"Even if it was about that, I can't tell him about you or about the project. I have to keep my place here. Who knows what advantages it could bring me in the future." 

Eva seemed to understand what he was saying. It was a spy thing.

"They want to use John as their raison d'etre for a plan he does not even agree with. And to use his children as leverage in order to keep their idol alive? That's..."

"Disgraceful?"

"Yes. Disgraceful. John is a person, after all. I don't know how you got in here, or what they told you, but it can and will be used against him. And you. That's why I assumed that you got in here because of...what I said before."

"...I see." 

She started going back and forth from rubbing her belly to twiddling her thumbs to playing with her hair. Finally, she was thinking hard.

"I do still love him, you know. Maybe some part of me hoped that this would bring us together again. On the other hand, it seemed to be for a good cause. For the preservation of his legacy."

"I love him too."

That was the first time he told anyone directly.

"I know, but...does it even matter anymore? A love triangle, does it even matter which one of us he loves? This is basic human decency. I just...oh my god."

She stared at her belly.

"What will happen to my children? I can't raise them. He won't. Zero definitely won't."

She didn't have much of a choice here but to hand them to Zero. He didn't tell her this.

"I didn't think of any of this, Ocelot. Thank you for telling me. And I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I was the same as you not too long ago."

"It's just, what do we do? Is there any way we can stop this?"

"...I have some favors I could pull..."

There was a good chance he could indirectly relay the information regarding the project through a third party. Infuriated, John would leave the Patriots, and he would not have to be Zero's plaything.

"...But there's nothing we can do directly. Let me handle it. We'll go from there."

"Are you sure I can't-"

"On top of constantly being under the Patriot's surveillance, your stomach is the size of a laundry sack, and I have no idea what sort of things they injected you with. Let me handle it." 

She seemed calmer than before he came in, somehow. A strange reaction when finding out that she had been fooled. She would have to be on her guard even more closely now, but what could she do in this empty room?

He pulled out the package of Rolos.

"I thought they were out of Rolos."

"They...weren't. I wanted them to myself. I like them."

He handed one to Eva.

"You're cute, Ocelot, you know that?"

She accepted it and popped it in her mouth. Adam followed suit.

"Go ahead and keep the rest. Twix will do me fine."

The rest of the visit went as visits usually did, with pointless small talk and the viewing of Gunsmoke re-runs. A guard eventually came and ushered Eva off for some sort of test. He then took his leave. 

Why did he care so much about John? What was that tangent he went off about? And confessing to Eva - was that even necessary? 

His feelings didn't matter. He said what he needed to say. After all, this was about John, not him. Always was, and always will be.

 

\--

 

He was willing to do anything for John, he thought as he mindlessly swallowed pill after pill. The night sky looked the same in any state of mind. Too bad John wasn't there to see it.

 

 


End file.
